5.9 Chuck Versus The Kept Man This story is mostly about the animal attraction that Gertrude Verbinski has for Casey, and how that tends to drag the whole team into hot water. It wasn’t a great story, but they managed to put a few elements in here that made me chuckle. Chuck’s entirely wacky idea that they should become the ‘Spies who Care’, was a nice theme that was woven throughout, as was a sub-plot about Sarah supposedly falling pregnant. As for that last element, I’m not convinced that she isn’t, because while they took the test they didn’t actually come up with any reasons why she was feeling nauseous in the mornings. I can foresee a conversation with the Awesomes about the real accuracy of pregnancy testing kits entirely reversing that conclusion before the end of the season. I’ve seen plenty of debate about the smart version of Jeff, and how some would like him to return to being a lush, but frankly I think they’d taken that as far as it could go, so having him clever and playing off the utterly dumb Lester works for me. It also provided a nice cliff-hanger for the show’s end, where they accidentally discover the truth and then need to be ‘neutralised’. This part worked, although I’m less convinced about the Gertrude/Casey relationship, even if the bit where Sarah caught them getting busy, and when asked by Chuck what was wrong, she said, “Everything… it’s all wrong…” was very funny. Yvonne Strahovski hasn’t been given many comedy moments in the show, which is a shame because she’s very good when she gets one. If I’m brutally honest, better than Zachary Levi. You can read our review of season five episode eight here.
